How did Indians fare in 2013 - Part 1

6. Ankita Raina – The Next Mirza?

Kyra Shroff seemed promising in 2011. When she faltered, Rishika Sunkara seemed to be the best. Prerna Bhambri returned to raise hopes. Yet, it is Ankita who had been a silent player all along, who made an impact this season. She opened the season with 7 finals ( including 3 titles ).

After a string of 10k tournaments, she started playing in the 25k category. This season saw her scale heights unscaled in recent times. She reaches the finals of the Karshi 2 tournament and thus became the first woman since Sania Mirza to do so. She also broke into the top 300 and is one of the few to do so apart from Mirza and few others.

She is very solid with her ground strokes and once even attracted the attention of David Ferrer and his coach during a training stint at Spain. She seems to be very promising though her performances in the higher category tournaments have not been very good. Some more sharpening of skills will add to experience she has got through playing in higher category tournaments. It will be very interesting to track her performances next year.

Though she reached as high as 291 in singles, doubles doesn’t seem to be her forte. With others like Prarthana Thombare and Rishika Sunkara lagging behind, she is clearly the favorite to succeed Sania Mirza as the next tennis star. Whether she will be able to do it should be clear only next year . Further, she is now competent enough to even lead our Fed Cup team in the Group 2 next year. In the absence of Sania Mirza in singles, she could also play a pivotal role in the Asian Games next year.